To The Sky
by Nytro
Summary: In which Eragon and Saphira attempt to fly to the moon.


**"If we had enough jewels, and we stored enough energy in them, do you think we could fly all the way to the moon?"**

_**"Who knows what is possible?"**_

**~ Inheritance chapter 47, A Crown of Ice and Snow**

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"Are you ready?"

_Ready._ replied Saphira in Eragon's mind, the sun throwing rainbows on her scales and her eyes fixed on that glowing orb in the sky.

"Okay. Let's go." And just like that, they leapt up into the heavens, Saphira's wings fully outstretched to make the best use of the hot updrafts.

Below them, the sandy dunes of the Hadarac Desert spiraled smaller and smaller as Saphira glided up through the sky on the strongest thermal current they had been able to find. She was well rested, having eaten three deer from the Beors yesterday morning, and having slept for hours last night in the lovely heat. The desert's dry air rushed past her scales, making them tingle with anticipation for what both she and Eragon knew would be a very, very long journey.

Up and up and up they flew, higher and higher and higher. The air grew thin and cold, and Eragon drew energy from the jewel in Brisingr to make a bubble around them so they could breathe. He had spent nearly a week taking the life-energy from animals soon to be slaughtered, though he had hated every second of it. The amount stored in that jewel would put the contents of Aren, had he not already used them, to shame. The dragons had helped too, pouring their life into it until it outwardly glowed with the energy it had. Eragon hoped it would be enough.

Above them, the sky was the deepest blue he had ever seen, and the sun beat down on them mercilessly. Saphira's wings began to flap harder, and Eragon let energy flow into her from the sword. This was the top point of the updraft. They would be on their own from here.

Eragon looked down and saw only sandy-coloured ground stretching on forever. The Hadarac Desert was strangely featureless from up here - he could no longer make out individual dunes, not even with eyes like an elf's. A few tiny wisps of cloud floated below him, and he saw the dots of their shadows on the ground.

_My wings cannot hold air for much longer, Eragon._ He nodded and let more power through the link, directing the river of light with a few words in the Ancient Language.

Saphira's wings began to shimmer, before lifting her up further in the sky. They had practised this spell on the ground many times, but still the jolt was enough to slightly unnerve Eragon. What if it failed now? What if it malfunctioned, and sent Saphira downwards instead of up?

_Hush, little one. All will be well. The spell is working, although it still feels so odd to be flying like this. Like an updraft, only there is no air rushing by me, just lift._

The blue of the sky was becoming deeper. Eragon looked up and saw a blue that was like the sea, but so much clearer. It was so obvious that this blue was not a thing, it was the absence of a thing. The nothing-blue stretched ahead of him and around him and even behind him. The desert was now covered by a thin blue haze.

_The sky_, he thought,_ is most definitely hollow. And it's coloured blue. It's like an ocean of air. I wonder if it has a surface?_

The crescent moon also hung above him. He and Saphira had chosen a time in the month where the moon rose during the day, so they might have something to aim for.

_Eragon, look!_ He looked, and saw nothing but the sun and the moon. Saphira touched her mind to his again, and suddenly he saw through her eyes.

_A star? But... but it's daytime!_ There it was though, shining faintly, far too faint for Eragon to see himself. As he watched, it grew brighter, and was joined by other stars.

_It seems the stars shine during the day as well. The sky just prevents us from seeing them._

_But, if they shine all the time, then where do they get their energy from? I thought they took it from the sun!_

_We'll ask the elves later._

_Yes._

Now, even Eragon could see the stars, set against a backdrop of blue-black. The world below him was round like a ball; he could see the curve of the horizon now. He saw the Beors and the great forest of Du Weldenvarden, shrouded in gleaming mist. He saw the tops of the Beors poking out from the clouds. He saw the Western Sea and the isle of Vroengard as a green hand in the sparkling blue. And just on the edge of the sea, he saw a line of green and white.

_Saphira!_ She saw, and he felt her shock echo along the link.

_Is that... land?_

_I think so. The mythical land across the sea, the birthplace of humans... Saphira, we have to go there._

_I agree, little one._ By now, they were utterly alone up in the black sky. There was no surface, just an ocean of nothingness that stretched on for leagues and leagues and leagues, into eternity. The sun shone among the stars, and Eragon was suddenly struck by the realisation that it was probably just a really big, really close star. The moon was blank and grey, something dead and lifeless unlike the planet beneath them.

On a whim, he opened his mind and casted it around him to look for life...

...and nearly screamed in sudden, irrational horror as he clutched Saphira more tightly than ever before.

_Little one?_

_There's nothing!_ He yelled into her mind and she tried to respond, tried to calm him down. He wouldn't listen.

Opening his mind to tune it to the world here was like jumping into an icy sea after spending his entire life as a desert nomad. Even in the midst of the Hadarac, where no plants grew and no animals went, the very air had a certain warmth of life about it. It was like that everywhere in Alagaesia. Up here, that warmth wasn't there. There was literally no life up here, not even the barest whisper of anything. It felt like reaching into the abyss of death and he absolutely shunned it, holding Saphira's spine, squeezing his eyes tight and erecting an iron fortress around his thoughts so he wouldn't slip away into the black.

Saphira did the only thing she could to snap him out of it. She looped upside-down and dropped him.

The flash of terror at falling from this height overcame his barriers for a split second and she crashed through the opening, surrounding his mind with a torrent of warmth and peace. His eyes went wide and he relaxed completely, letting Saphira snatch his body up with her talons and reposition it on her back.

_Thank you._ He didn't know what else to say. Looking into Death had spooked him beyond anything else. He didn't dare open his mind again.

All this time, the moon came no closer, and neither did the sun nor the stars. Eragon wondered at how far away it must be, to not even move after such a high climb. They must have flown the entire length of Alagaesia, or even further.

_Little one, the energy in Brisingr is running out. _He checked, and marveled that they had already expended more than two thirds of what was in there.

_We can't make it to the moon. It's just too far._

_I agree. Shall we go back?_ Eragon sensed her concern for his mental safety if they stayed up here too long. He agreed in his mind and cut the spell that kept them flying. He and Saphira fell.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Faster.

Faster.

Faster.

With no air to push out of the way there seemed to be no limit to how fast they could fall. It was like the funny feeling as a dragon began a dive, that falling feeling that faded after a second. Except it didn't fade, and they fell.

Down.

Down.

Down.

_Eragon! We're falling too fast! Ward yourself, now!_ Numbly, he did as Saphira told him to, using Brisingr's store to increase the wards around himself to block heat and rushing air so he wouldn't be torn apart. Below him, Saphira tried to maneuver herself from a fall into a dive, but with no air to push on she could only turn around by twisting her wings flat against her body.

Then came the fire.

At first it was just a tiny drain on the wards, and the noise of wind in his ear that was welcome after the silence of above. Then, with an almighty roar, Saphira hit the surface of the air sea, which Eragon now realised he had flown up above without even realising it. It was like hitting a wall of bricks, but they were going so fast they broke right through it and beyond.

A halo of blue flame encased them in their dive, sliding of Saphira's scales and Eragon's warded skin. Saphira's wings shook violently with the strain of holding course and not losing control. Together, they streaked across the sky like a falling meteor. They were seen by many humans who looked up into the heavens and watched the comet of light with awe on their faces. One elf in Kirtan made a fairth of the spectacle, which would hand on the wall of his treehouse for many, many years - though he did not know what it truly was.

Inside the capsule of fire, Eragon's ears were deafened and his eyes could not see anything but blue flames. He called out with his mind to Saphira, and felt her single-minded determination to prevent their deaths. He briefly thought for a moment that if he had to die, this was one of the most spectacular ways to go. Then he shut his eyes.

Saphira angled her wings just right and swooped out of the dive, pressing Eragon against her scales with the force and levelling out, still flying faster than she had ever done before, still encased in flame, but now level with the surface and now flying back up towards the sky. Stress and concentration turned to a flood of joy as the fire began to fade and she brought herself back under control, looping and swerving in the sky and slowing down and slowing down. Eventually, she hung stationary in the air.

_Eragon! Can we do that again?_ There was no response from his mind. Saphira tried to crane her neck to see him, but just ended up making a circle in the air._ Eragon? Little one?_

He was clinging to one of her spines, eyes still squeezed tight and shivering slightly with the aftereffects of the dive. She sensed dizziness from his mind, and the lingering sense of terror.

_Saphira, we are never doing that again. Ever._ Despite this, she sensed his feelings turning to relief and thrill and sent a pulse of amusement down the link.

_Very well. Next time, I'll take Arya and Firnen. See how she likes nearly being roasted._ The panic in Eragon's mind was comic.

_No! I... er... Can we just get down now? My head is spinning._

_As you command, O great rider of mine._ Saphira gently glided down to a stop on a patch of grass. Eragon hopped off as quickly as possible, glad to finally have solid ground under his feet. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy flying with Saphira. That had just been... woah.

He lay there on the grass for a while. He needed some time to calm down. Saphira curled up next to him and extended her wings out to soak up the sun.

After an indeterminate length of time, Eragon had a thought.

"That fire... is that what makes the brightsteel so special? It was such a pure fire, and it was blue... Is fire really blue, and we just mix other things into it to make it yellow or red?" Saphira sent a smug thought over at him at this and snorted a tongue of blue flame. "No... it's not that shade of blue. It's like..."

He stood up and went over to Saphira, pulling out from the saddle the dark blue scabbard of his sword. He drew the blade and held it out in front of him, tip pointed up.

"Brisingr." The sword burst into fire. It was the same fire that the sky had used. This was what the true name of fire was really referring to, not the yellow stuff that burned on logs. Brisingr was the pure fire that forged the brightsteel, that was then forged into Brisingr the sword. It seemed obvious now.

He swiped the sword in front of him swice, watching the flames sway in the air, before cancelling the spell and placing Brisingr back in the scabbard.

"Well, I guess that answers that question, then..." Saphira gave a lazy nod of agreement through the link, still sprawled out on the grass having a sunbath. Eragon was struck by a thought. "Um, Saphira?" Question. "Well, I had my eyes closed when we were falling, and, well..."

He looked around. A grassy plain as far as the eye could see.

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

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**_Reviews are always welcome!_**


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